WO2015161352A1

WO2015161352A1 - Unmanned aerial vehicle (uav) used for agricultural activity and the application of pesticides and fertilizers

Info

Publication number: WO2015161352A1
Application number: PCT/BR2015/000056
Authority: WO
Inventors: Eduardo DA COSTA GOERL; Cristiano CAMARA DA SILVEIRA
Original assignee: Da Costa Goerl Eduardo; Camara Da Silveira Cristiano
Priority date: 2014-04-22
Filing date: 2015-04-22
Publication date: 2015-10-29

Abstract

The present innovation relates to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with self-propulsion, vertical take-off (VTOL), which is actuated and controlled remotely, for the application of pesticides/fertilizers, for manuring, for sowing, and for inspection and control of pests and ripening. The UAV in question has a tank connected to a sprayer with adjustable flow rate for agricultural use and with remote actuation; same has a module for vector-based control of the direction of the sprayed element, based on wind direction at the time of application; a high-resolution camera coupled to a GPS system capable of providing the co-ordinates of the captured and recorded image; an automatic pilot system capable of maintaining the horizontal and vertical position of the vehicle and navigating on the basis of pre-established geographical co-ordinates.

Description

DESCRIPTIVE REPORT

[1]. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), used for agricultural activity and pesticide and fertilizer application.

[2]. The present invention relates to a novel solution for agriculture, more specifically to the application of pesticides, fertilizers, fertilization, sowing, inspection, pest control and maturation. The invention creates and enables the concept of spraying with UAV.

DESCRIPTION OF RELATED TECHNIQUE

[3] Agricultural activity has existed since the beginning of humanity. Along with agriculture came the need to manage the field, as well as pests and pests. Since then attempts have been made to combat these harms through fertilizers and pesticides.

HISTORIC

[4] In 1921, agricultural spraying by aircraft began when, at the time, a second person inside the aircraft, besides the pilot, was spraying insecticide on the crop. The first exclusively agricultural aircraft was developed in the 1950s in the USA. The first trials of agricultural helicopter flights were made in 1944 in England. The advantage of the helicopter over the airplane is that it can be used in small areas, rough terrain and does not require a runway.

[5] In 1988, 10% of agricultural aircraft were helicopters. Currently, agricultural aviation is largely made by airplanes. In Brazil, there are no helicopters spraying and in the USA this number is estimated at 10%. Airplanes are produced to scale to meet the worldwide demand for agricultural input spraying.

AIRCRAFT USED FOR SPRAY

[6] The PA-25 Pawnee began manufacturing in 1959 and ended in 1981.

It had a 250HP engine and a reservoir of 568 liters of chemicals. It is still in use today and has the lowest price among its competitors, as it has reduced operating capacity, currently costing USD 50,000.

[7] In 1965, the American airline Cessna began manufacturing the Cessna 188 family of aircraft - AGwagon, AGpickup, AGhusky and finally AGtruck, a model still found in large numbers. Manufactured until 1988, they had a 1,060-liter Hopper, a 310HP turbocharged engine and were powered exclusively by aviation gasoline. Approximate cost of the aircraft: USD 170,000.00 [8] The EMB201A - Ipanema aircraft has been manufactured by the Brazilian company Embraer since 1972, which obtained in 2014 the mark of 1400 delivered aircraft, holding about 60% of the Brazilian agricultural aircraft market. With a 300HP engine, the aircraft powered by aviation gasoline (AVGAS) or ethanol has a maximum takeoff weight (TOW) of 1,800 kg and a 950 liter chemical tank. Approximate cost of the aircraft: USD: 315,000.00.

[9] In 1990, the company Air Tractor, in the United States of America, was created to manufacture agricultural aircraft and firefighting aircraft. Currently featuring the Air Tractor AT-802, which has the largest capacity among its competitors. The aircraft has a 3,104-liter chemical tank, a 1600HP engine and a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 7,257kg. Approximate cost of the aircraft: USD 893,900.00.

AIRCRAFT SPRAYING PROCESS

[10] The plane flies from its hangar to an airstrip near the area to be sprayed. The landowner chooses which products to apply depending on what is affecting his crop. The product is inserted into a reservoir, commonly called Hopper. After taking off and navigating to the chosen area, the plane passes over the plantation at a low height, making spray lines. Since 1990, these lines have been more accurate through a DGPS (Differential Global Positioning System) system. This system allows the flight in pre-established geographic coordinates, reducing the spraying errors - the known "bands" in the fields, which are areas not reached by the spraying - that cause damages to the rural producer by the non uniformity of its planted area. After passing at low altitude, the aircraft makes a rapid upward maneuver, bending during the climb 180 degrees, to restart spraying on another line established by the DGPS. The sprayer opening control is done by the pilot and often generates losses to the farmer, because after the upward curve and the aircraft configuration change, the pilot must manually check the line change in the DGPS and at the beginning of the area. control the sprayer opening. The pilot starts spraying based on his flying experience, understanding the concept of inertia as he knows he cannot start either before or after his area, risking spraying the wrong field or leaving an unpowdered lane at the beginning of planting. for which he was hired. Even the most capable pilot suffers from the effects of drifting the product to the ground.

AGRICULTURAL AVIATION SAFETY

[11] Spraying pesticides with airplanes exposes pilots and their assistants to many risks. This is hardly a safe activity. The aircraft flies close to the ground at high speed, freeing up its cargo. changing your center of gravity at a sensitive time by being close to the ground and fast. The maneuver called the Reversal Curve, also known as the "balloon", in which the pilot ascends rapidly while turning 180 degrees, exposes the aircraft to risks of loss of lift and requires pilot precision in pitch and tang commands to resume straight horizontal flight. Another risk, not associated with falling, but with a long-term effect, is the ingestion of the sprayed element depending on the weather conditions present. As the aircraft passes very close to the last sprayed line, the pilot may ingest the cloud of pesticide expelled on the last pass. Allied with low-altitude flight are high-voltage wires that are often overtaken from below. If the pilot chooses to leave this wire below the aircraft, he risks losing the beginning of the sprayed area. If you walk under this wire, you run the risk of finding a property dividing fence and seeing its available vertical distance reduced in a few seconds, making it difficult to make the evasive decision to maneuver. Normally a flight strategy is defined for a given area before takeoff, but this is only possible when the given area has sufficient ground access or visual field, thus generating the above risk. In document FCA58-1 of 2012, CENIPA (Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents), a body linked to the Ministry of Defense and the Command of Aeronautics, publishes as a suggestion for agricultural companies to encourage the planning of pilots before maneuvers. Recently the planning and judgment of pilots was a contributing factor present in most accidents.

The operating companies of the agricultural aircraft are responsible for the correct completion of the flight log, as to the hours flown and the proper maintenance on the aircraft. The National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAG) is responsible for verifying this filling, but it is spoken among operators and experts of the Specialized Air Service - Agricultural Aviation that due to the distances between farms and ANAC headquarters this supervision is below ideal , subjecting the process to irregularities in the filling of flight hours and consequently in the preventive and corrective maintenance of the aircraft. The same 2012 FCA58-1 document provides safety workshops for maintenance workshops to improve oversight of aircraft maintenance requirements.

Also according to the Center for Investigation and Prevention of Aeronautical Accidents in Brazil, CENIPA, from 2003 to 2012, Agricultural Aviation was responsible for 14% of the aeronautical accidents investigated in the country. [14] ANAC was informed of 124 agricultural aircraft accidents between 2002 and 2011. Of these accidents, 35 had casualties, totaling 41 pilots killed. Approximately 46% of accidents are caused by direct maneuvers and loss of control in flight. Another 17% had engine failure as the cause.

[15] At the last XXV Regional Civil Aviation Symposium, promoted in September 2013 by the Sixth Regional Civil Aviation Service (Serac6), an agency linked to ANAC, was explained by a reserve colonel that only 30% of agricultural aircraft accidents come to the knowledge of the National Agency of Civil Aviation.

EFFICIENCY IN AGRICULTURAL AVIATION

[16] Applying fertilizers and pesticides to be effective cannot have volume errors or product waste. As the plane needs speed to keep flying, the flow calculation becomes difficult, because one must predict how much product will be wasted in the process by drift and vortex. The aerodynamic effects of the aircraft, responsible for the lift, generate some unwanted effects for application, which are added to the drop drift effect on the way to the ground. Due to the difference in pressure and direction of the air fillets in the top and bottom of the wing, we have a "bending" effect of the windmill caused by the airplane and called wingtip vortices intrinsic to the flight of any aircraft. and that may influence the distribution, loss and deposition of the drops in the deposition range and the desired target. Such an effect causes the sprayed small drops (<150pm) to be lost, generating waste.

THE USE OF AGRICULTURAL HELICOPTERS

[17] The arable area in Brazil is today 70 million hectares, corresponding to less than 8% of the national territory. There are approximately 500 million hectares of land available for planting. The difficulty of planting on rough terrain exists and is due in part to the fact that the airplane has flight characteristics that make it impossible to spray, sow, irrigate and control the planted area.

[18] Surveys of the agricultural helicopter sector - still nonexistent in Brazil - show a potential of up to 500 aircraft in the next 10 years in this country. In countries such as the United States of America, Canada, New Zealand and Japan, the agricultural helicopter market has existed for over 40 years. The main reason is the efficiency of the spraying performed.

[19] Helicopter efficiency starts with reduced drift. The drops, when they leave the spray bar, are pushed down due to the effect known as downwash, which is produced by the rotor blades. Also the vortex effect is practically nonexistent due to the low velocity in the application. Adding the downwash effect to drift-reduced spray tips, the helicopter is unlikely to spray wrong fields or damage neighboring crops and different crops.

[20] The ability to hover and maneuver within the confines of the sprayed area gives helicopter application an advantage. A gain of 22 seconds per pass is estimated because the reversal curve is not required. Overflowing houses, lakes, roads and other sensitive environments is also avoided. It also gains the possibility of operation on rough terrain, such as mountain slopes, for example.

[21] In addition, the landing capacity for recharging and refueling at any obstacle-free location allows for simpler planning operation. Unlike the airplane, a large airstrip (minimum 500 meters) is not required for the helicopter.

[22] Possibly the helicopter is no longer used in Brazil's agriculture due to its high costs. Purchasing a helicopter and adapting it for agriculture costs more than agricultural aviation, given the capacity of its chemical reservoir. The Bell 206B III has an estimated price of USD 750,000 and an application capacity of 800 liters. In the 1980s, the Brazilian government tried to encourage the use of this equipment in sugarcane and banana plantations, but due to the cost of maintenance and consumption of aviation gasoline (AVGAS) in a few years the project was suspended.

ENVIRONMENT

[23] Any of the alternatives seen in this description is driven by reciprocating engines - piston engines - that use AVGAS (Aviation Gasoline) or Ethanol, more recently as Embraer Ipanema 201 A;

[24] The fossil fuels used - gasoline and oil - are pollutants of the atmosphere, emitting CO2, sulfur, and various other wastes with their use. In addition, they generate waste in oil extraction and transformation into gasoline. This fuel is not renewable and will continue to pollute for as long as it is used. An Air Tractor AT 802 aircraft consumes from 280 to 320 liters of AVGAS in one hour, plus 1 liter of oil every 25 hours of flight.

[25] There is also a risk with agricultural aviation, whether by plane or helicopter, of spraying product sensitive areas, ie during application spray rivers, lakes, or even fields that are not ready to receive the spray material.

[26]. OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION

[27]. The present invention aims to enable the necessary spraying of agricultural fields more safely, more efficiently, cheaper and less environmentally aggressive. In addition to pesticide spraying, this invention enables spraying of seeds, fertilizers and fertilizer. Allied to this, the invention allows the visualization of aerial images of the field, so that the producer can have knowledge of its entire area and the maturation of its planting.

SAFETY

[28] The invention causes the pilot to exit the cockpit and control the equipment from a distance. The UAV will be controlled by a remote station away from the area to be sprayed. The pilot is no longer in danger of accident or risk of ingestion of the pulverized input. High voltage wires and fences will not be a significant obstacle as the UAV will take off VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing) and fly straight to the first selected geographic coordinate. The UAV will not have in its composition combustible material (Gasoline or Ethanol), this means that in the event of a fall, there will be no explosion and, consequently, there will be no risk to people and installations near the winged area. The use of UAV in agricultural application also allows to spray extremely remote areas, such as hillsides and other hard to reach places.

EFFICIENCY

[29] Since the helicopter is the most efficient way to spray, given the downwash effect of its propeller, the multi-propeller UAV increases this efficiency. Armed with a mathematical system to correct the incident wind at the time of application, UAV spraying allows precision. Combined with the wind correction system and the downwash effect is the proximity to the ground provided by the UAV without risk.

ENVIRONMENT

[30] The UAV uses electric motors and will therefore use utility power to supply the batteries. The engines will not consume aviation gasoline or ethanol. With the accuracy achieved by the UAV and its GPS system that navigates between previously established geographic coordinates, mistaken spraying of rivers and lakes, as well as application in wrong areas and consequent damage to sensitive crops, will be rare and possible only with misguided programming. geographical coordinates. COSTS

[31]. The UAV in your operation will have no engine fuel costs. The UAV owner will charge their batteries with electricity from the utilities. If the owner opts for energy from a solar or wind power system, the fuel running cost will be reset. The ratio of electricity to fuel (gasoline) is estimated at 1/3. 66% reduction in engine fuel cost. The invention will use oil in preventive overhauls for lubrication of parts, but will not use oil for its operation inside the motor, as it is an electric motor. The initial investment will also be reduced, as it is estimated a lower price than the aircraft presented in this description. The cost of pilots training will also be reduced as the operation of the UAV will be simple and easily learned. With the accuracy achieved by the UAV, the costs of chemicals will be reduced as waste is lower than the alternatives presented today.

NEW AND ACHIEVED TECHNICAL EFFECT

[32] Ó VANT Agrícola brings as a novelty the precision spraying through mathematical system of incident wind drift correction. Precision is also given by a GPS (Global Positioning System) system that navigates pre-established coordinates. Through FPV (First Person View) glasses, the pilot can navigate the UAV through virtual corridors on the plantation. Takeoff is VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing). Spraying takes place through a spray bar and pressurized spray tips and connected to a chemical reservoir below the UAV's center frame and serves agricultural inputs such as pesticides, fertilizers, seeds, fertilizer. It also allows the control of planting and maturation through a high precision camera installed!

List of Figures Presented

[33]. Figure 1 presents a front left side view of the Agricultural UAV.

1. Propeller / Engine Assembly

2. Spray Bar

3. Pressurizer

4. Camera

[34] Figure 2 shows a right side rear view of the Agricultural UAV

5. Airfoil Reservoir of Chemicals.

6. Retractable Landing Gear.

7. Controller Board DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention consists of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) of varying weight, number of engine and propeller assemblies, and frame rigidity, depending on the amount of product for which the UAV chemical reservoir is designed. With vertical take-off (VTOL) system, self-propelled by a variable number of engine and propeller assemblies, powered by a variable number of batteries and controlled remotely by a pilot. This pilot will or may not have visual access to the invention during operation, depending on the intended range of the task performed. When without eye contact with the UAV or when applying the UAV, the pilot will view the path through a First Person View (FPV) system, which allows real-time viewing from inside the UAV by a camera attached to the underside of the UAV. next to a transmitter. On the ground, the rider will have an image receiver as well as glasses or a screen installed on his workstation for real time viewing. The pilot will navigate through geographic coordinates previously established on the ground, using satellite visualization tools or by images captured by the UAV himself, by the camera that he owns, which may be by ground contact or autopilot navigation, being the pilot responsible. supervising this system. The pilot will be responsible for the operation and shall assume control whenever the automatic navigation system does not respond as expected. For ease of navigation, a virtual tunnel system may be used; in which the pilot follows the route traced by virtual tunnels and, if the automatic system leaves the plan, the pilot takes over and resumes the flight. The chemical reservoir will be variable in size and will determine the size of the spray bar. The spray bar will be connected to the tank through the pressurizing system, which sends the pressurized product to the spray tips or atomizers, remotely driven by the pilot. The flow rate of the spray tip or atomizer is variable and depends on the request of the person responsible for the application area. Having the UAV incident wind component calculated by the controller board by varying the GPS position, the spray system calculates the application direction to allow for greater accuracy even though the UAV is capable of spraying very close to the ground. This last observation is valid because spraying too close to the ground is not always more effective. COMPARATIVE TABLE BETWEEN TECHNICAL STATE AND INVENTION

Claims

1. AGRICULTURAL NON-CREWED AIR VEHICLE, characterized by having a chemical reservoir (5) and using a spray bar (2) interconnected with remotely actuated and controlled flow pressurized spray nozzles (3);

2. AGRICULTURAL NON-CREWED AIRCRAFT, characterized by its self-propelling and vertical take-off (VTOL) system, using a variable number of electric motors and propellers (1) together with a flight altitude maintenance system (7) which is driven and remotely controlled and navigates through an established geographic coordinate group.

3. AGRICULTURAL UNCRAFT AIR VEHICLE, characterized by having a camera with a transmitter that allows viewing and recording of images in real time by a receiver, allowing the pilot to navigate with first sight glasses (FPV) by the geographical coordinates that have been established.

Agricultural non-crewed aerial vehicle according to Claim 1, characterized in that an incident wind drift correction system (7) is used for spraying agricultural activity.

AGRICULTURAL NON-CREWED AIR VEHICLE according to claim 2, characterized in that it uses batteries or the best performance elements available for its electric motors.

AGRICULTURAL NON-CREWED AIR VEHICLE according to claim 2, characterized in that it presents the geographical coordinates in virtual tunnel for the application of agricultural inputs or the generation of images to accompany the area to be worked.

AGRICULTURAL UNCONTRACTED AIR VEHICLE according to claim 3, characterized in that it makes it possible to trace the flight planning by the image itself generated by the UAV or by images obtained. satellites and also allowing the owner of the agricultural area to view the situation of his plantation in real time.

AGRICULTURAL NON-CREWED AIRCRAFT according to claim 3, characterized in that it has an autonomous take-off, navigation and landing system, depending on a pilot whenever the current regulations of the UAV's location require it.